In the spirit of “recreating responsibly” and having local microadventures, I grabbed a quick 3-day weekend off work in October and section hiked part of the Ice Age Trail in northwestern Wisconsin. It was perfect timing to see the fall colors at their peak, just before the nights of frost strip all the pretty leaves from the trees and turn them bare and winter-ready. The gorgeous crisp fall weather and technicolor foliage meant that I saw a lot of day hikers on Saturday, but when I started my hike on Friday morning the trails were all mine.

I parked my car at the small lot off of Sailor Creek Rd (Forest Road 571), at mile 239.7 in the Guthook app, and headed south down the Ice Age Trail. We’d been having a wet fall, so there were a few muddy bits, and the boardwalk bridge at the South Fork of the Yellow River was askew (still passable, just a balancing act) in very high creek waters, but mostly the trail was dry and covered with crisp yellow leaves.

My goal was light and fast for the weekend, trying to cover as much ground as I could, so I went stoveless and with pretty minimal gear. It still felt luxurious because the “primitive” campsites are bomb on the IAT! Big, awesome, sturdy log benches, a fire ring!, easy water access, and a flat tent pad on soft red dirt: I camped at the north shore site at Lake Eleven and was giddy with how nice the site was. I built a roaring fire and enjoyed the views of twilight over the lake from my living room.

In the morning I retraced my steps and went farther north, with a bit more attention to routefinding as the trail was newly carpeted in leaves after strong winds overnight. There were a ton of day hikers and other backpackers and some awesomely wet and muddy dogs, which made sharing the trail totally worth it.

I stopped for a long late lunch at Jerry Lake. The campsite there is great except that it’s right on the trail, so I was happy I hadn’t tried to camp there. Would be perfect in the winter though when (maybe?) there’s not as much traffic. People are pretty outdoorsy in the upper midwest though, so I’ll have to come back in a couple months and post a snowshoe trip update.

Overall a great section of trail and a very satisfying weekend!